I'm that Curtis Jobling, writer and illustrator. You may know me as designer of "Bob the Builder" (sorry) and creator of "Raa Raa the Noisy Lion" and "Frankenstein's Cat". I'm also the author of the "Wereworld" series of fantasy horror novels and the darkly comic YA thriller "Haunt". Published by Puffin, Penguin US, Simon & Schuster and Egmont around the world.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Beatblasting a Brainjar in 3 Easy Chords

Busy couple of days. Spent yesterday at my son's school holding animation and storytelling workshops with all the children- ended up with doodler's wrist, a condition acquired after spending many hours sketching and re-sketching BOB THE BUILDER characters for 4-11 year olds. Still, lots of smiley faces and I suspect AJ has now attained some kind of cult status amongst his peers. One bigger kid even stepped up at the end of the day to put his arm protectively around AJ while I was signing books- AJ gave him a look as if to say "Who he?"

And today I've been @ Borders in York signing copies of CHEEKY MONKEY, my new book, as well as FRANKENSTEIN'S CAT and MY DADDY. Was most amused by requests to sign 16-18 year old's body parts. Obliged just the one, a rangey looking youth who looked like he was into death metal. Have to say it doesn't get much more rock n roll than when you have a Bob the Builder tattoo emblazoned on your forearm...

Here's BEATBLASTING A BRAINJAR IN 3 EASY CHORDS, one of my favourite BB pieces. Here we see a Brainjar Alien being head-pickled by a blast on Jonny B Green's rhythm guitar. The Brainjar musical cue is Elevator Music. You've probably already noted the homage to MARS ATTACKS in the Brainjar design- a hefty nod in the direction of the Topps Trading Card Co. there! Accompanying this is the character study of Jonny, in itself a much smaller painting. The character studies are a lot of fun to do (plus I suspect they're more in most budgets as art pieces, as opposed to the larger canvases!)

1 comment:

Firstly, thanks so much for commenting on our blog. Our first celebrity! Before you our best comment was from the wife of a celebrity.Yes, I love Shag and you are right that I also like your work. Why I'm commenting here is because this is my favourite! The soundtrack to this could be an Ok Go song called Invincible.

About Me

Born in Blackpool and raised in Warrington. Designer and creator of various animated shows including BOB THE BUILDER, FRANKENSTEIN'S CAT and RAA RAA THE NOISY LION. Author of the WEREWORLD series, HAUNT, WORLD OF WARRIORS and MAX HELSING novels.